Writing: Task Achievement, Register and Controlled Range
What the writing domain tests
You produce one or two texts - typically a shorter transactional text (an informal email, or a formal letter of application or complaint, around 150–200 words) and a longer discursive one (an opinion essay, article or report, around 200–250 words). Markers assess task achievement (all content points covered, genre and register appropriate), organisation, range and accuracy. A text that answers half the prompt cannot score well however elegant the English is.
Rules that decide marks
- Underline the content points in the prompt and tick each one off in your plan. Missing one costs more than any single grammar slip.
- Register is a scoring category, not decoration:
- informal: contractions, phrasal verbs, direct questions, Hi / Best wishes;
- formal: no contractions, I am writing to..., indirect questions (I would be grateful if you could tell me...), Dear Sir or Madam / Yours faithfully or Dear Mr Smith / Yours sincerely.
- One idea per paragraph, opened by a topic sentence; link with a small set of accurate connectors rather than a chain of Firstly, Moreover, Last but not least.
- Accuracy beats ambition: a correctly used B2 structure scores higher than a mangled C1 one.
- Never reproduce a memorised essay. Prompts are worded so that a pre-learned text answers the wrong question.
Worked example
Prompt: a formal email applying for a summer job at a language school.
Weak: I am writing to tell you that I want to apply for this job because I think I am very good and I like English very much.
Revised: I am writing to apply for the summer teaching assistant post advertised on your website. As a second-year student with two years' experience of tutoring younger learners, I believe I could contribute to your team.
Reasoning: the revision names the post, replaces vague self-praise with one concrete piece of evidence, removes very, uses the standard formal opening and a hedged claim (I believe I could) - exactly the register markers a marker looks for.
Traps
- Estonian-L1 interference: missing articles (I am student), I am agree, I have 17 years, make a photo, on the picture, How do you call it?, actual used for current.
- Overshooting or undershooting the word limit by 30% or more.
- No closing formula, or an informal sign-off in a formal letter.
- Long unparagraphed blocks that hide the content points from the marker.
- Content points answered in one flat sentence each, with no development.